Kalli patted Temple on the shoulder. "You have lived up to the name of Hero. Alright, this is the dorm building that I stay in, and it’s likely the best spot for all of you as well. However, it’s not time to settle in.

First, we will get some food in you, and introduce you to the others when they come back.

You’ve got six people, and quests come in either five or ten person assignments. We try to get everyone out every day, since the points rewarded for the quests can be used to buy gear and food. But there are some that prefer not to go and instead stay mostly inside, keeping the place running."

Gerry came over and winked at Kalli. "I know that your class gets some odd abilities, but summoning shirtless hunks? You could have just picked one from the team here."

Kalli laughed at the chubby mage. "These are heroes from Gomand. I got an item that lets heroes resurrect, but takes a portion of their power and progress. I’m going to set it up in the spare room in the dorms. Can you explain how the meal rotation works? Lady and Gentlemen, this is Gerry, he’s our head chef."

Temple and the Rogues laughed, while Gerry shook his head.

"She’s not joking, I really am the head chef. We’ve got mutated plants and monster meat, plus supplies from the dungeon. We’re actually eating pretty good, with no shortage of supplies."

"Wait, you have actual fresh produce? Like, you can keep collecting food?"

"We even have a quest that gives us System Points for collecting more than five kilograms of edible plants per person per day. But we’ve got a working procedure, we don’t fully harvest any of the plants because they grow back fast, and then we can keep harvesting them over and over.

It will all make sense once the groups start coming back to the Academy.

You’ve all got today off, so you can come and try some of the dinner special. Kalli, I will take these heroes off your hands so that you can go complete the quests for the others. You know how they get when they have to wait for their rewards."

The new arrivals clearly didn’t know what Kalli was talking about, but Gerry was happy to explain as he led them into the cafeteria.

These heroes hadn’t had a proper meal in a while, and Kalli could tell that their physical growth was far below the members of the Marimgar group for their levels.

Even before they had lost ten percent to the resurrection, they had been far weaker than any of the heroes here, who had been working out daily and getting gains from the quest.

It wasn’t long before the first team returned with news about the Swineherd Demons.

Niall jogged over to where Kalli was standing, and patted her on the shoulder to get his quest rewards, then began his explanation.

"The Swineherd Demons don’t just have a camp. They have an entire bloody territory. I went up one of the trees atop the ridgeline, by what used to be the Hills Estates district. I can see for the better part of fifty kilometres from there, and there are Swineherd Demons in clusters everywhere.

We’re on the edge of an entire Swineherd Demon farming community, and the only reason they don’t know it is because of the trees."

"Damn. Alright, that’s going to take some calculations. If they team up, it’s almost guaranteed that we can’t hold them off. But did you get enough kills for the mission?"

The Rogue nodded. "We got four demons and twelve pigs. More than enough boars, but we needed two groups to get enough Swineherd Demons."

Kalli nodded. "In that case, we should likely order the others to spread out. If we hit them all along the tree line, not just directly in line with the Academy, it should convince the demons that the entire forest is dangerous, and not just this one spot."

"Oh, they already know that because the entire forest IS dangerous. There are snakes the size of trees in there, and when I looked further down the beach, there are more of those Crocolisks, but they’re afraid to get too close to the crabs."

"That’s important information as well. If the other monsters avoid the crabs, that’s good news for us because it means they’re not going to brave the crabs to come mess with us unless they are given a reason.

Hunting the Swineherd Demons is going to cause problems eventually. But if we’re going to keep getting the points, we will have to.

How is the effort to drive them off the tubers?"

Niall laughed. "Far better than anyone expected. But we’re going to see problems starting tomorrow when the others realize that the ones we killed didn’t come back. I think that most of the groups have completed the mission already. The Swineherds just discovered the tubers, and they have been swarming over to harvest them."

Kalli did the math. Four per completion, twenty groups. Eighty Demons and at least that many boars was not going to go unnoticed.

Most likely, they would have killed off every demon that was living near the trees, and that absence would be noticed by those who lived nearest to them. You didn’t just accept that your neighbours all vanished on the same day without at least going looking for them.

On the bright side, they were going to have more than enough meat to keep them stocked for some time.

And supplies were great, if they could keep the team alive long enough to use them.

With two hundred heroes against an entire horizon full of demonic pig man farmers? That wasn’t exactly a given. Now, she was beginning to understand why the System saw their chances of living for 30 days as worthy of being called a "Trial".

They had to establish themselves at this location, build enough of a foothold and infrastructure to ensure that they could survive in a long-term manner, and do something about their more hostile neighbours.

Before they realized what was going on and came to wipe the heroes out.